Fake News and Factual Distress
Fake news and falsehoods are difficult to combat. What happens when such stories emerge from within the greater Jewish family?
Putting the Mitzvah Back into B’nei Mitzvah
When a colleague told me guests at his daughter’s bat mitzvah would pack grains and canned goods for the homeless, I was nonplussed. His explanation changed my thinking.
When We're All In, We Win: Miriam Chilton's Address to the URJ Biennial 2017
Yes, we are doing holy work. We are imparting Jewish wisdom and knowledge. We are fostering a generation that is resilient, responsible, compassionate, joyful, and Jewish.
More than 1,000 Jewish Teens and Adult Leaders from Across North America to Gather in Dallas at Convention Focused on How to Build Community & Enact Change
The COVID-19 Crisis and the Faith Community
Remembering Al Vorspan, z"l: The Prophet Who Loved to Laugh
Al Vorspan, a giant for social justice, died on February 17 at the age of 95. Like Amos, Micah, and Isaiah, Al was not afraid to speak truth to power.
The Burden of Leadership: Carrying the People with You at All Times
According to modern academic scholarship of the Bible – the critical approach embraced by progressive Judaism in its centers of higher learning – the Torah is made up of separate literary strands, written in different times and places, and holding different ideologies about ancient Jewish life. In this week’s parashah, T’tzaveh, we see the P-strand, which stands for Priestly code and was likely composed by the priests’ heirs to Temple authority during the Babylonian exile after the defeat of the Judean kingdom in 586 B.C.E. Understood this way, we, as the biblical readers of today, might appreciate P’s representation of priest and Temple as a mythic argument for how the exiles can see through and beyond the upheaval and uprooting of their time.